Education for Sustainable Development

There is a general societal goal of education: to create sustainable communities. Sustainability generally means the ability to fulfill present environmental, societal, and economic needs without sacrificing the well-being of future generations. Education can uniquely enable groups to achieve sustainability, in part by education individuals about efforts towards sustainability, but also by instructing individuals to themselves act in favor of a sustainable world.

For an authoritative position on how to advocate for education for sustainable development (ESD), see the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit by Dr. Rosalyn McKeown.

Overall, I undoubtedly believe ESD to be the key to solving many of the world's problems that are currently caused by unsustainable practices, including but not limited to hunger, violence, discrimination, exploitation, and resource depletion.

Every aspect of ESD comes together when we can envision and ideally create communities of people who can sustain themselves. This is defined by their actions, but also by their attitudes; when a person recognizes his or her investment in a given community, he or she will act to benefit it out of intrinsic incentive. Sustainability is comprised of just this: eager citizens that engage in what will benefit the whole. This attitude comes from education, and can (in a sustainable way) promote education further. Teaching individuals to care for their communities begins with teaching children, and our ability to effectively teach children conversely starts in the communities that realize their stake in future generations.

However, I'd like to discuss the inherent sustainability of education itself.

A quality education will not only teach material - material that includes environmental awareness, societal involvement, economic responsibility - but will impart upon students a life-long love for learning. In this regard, education can inspire continuing education, within a life but also between generations. I have an anecdote to demonstrate this: a young boy reads aloud to me a picture book. He turns the page and gasps a little when he realizes how many words accompany the following illustration. I offer to take a turn reading, but he refuses - instead, he tells me that he'll read the page, as long as I'm willing to help him with words he doesn't know. I learned that day that something about his education had encouraged him to push himself to learn even more, beyond the requirements, because he could see, despite his age, the benefits that learning would have for him. Of course, my own learning in this situation has inspired me to further act to spread his successes to other corners of the world. If harnessed, the power that caused this boy voluntarily to challenge himself intellectually could single-handedly change the world, and I hope to find that power and enable its use.

A Long-Term Investment

Political systems are frequently designed such that politicians have an incentive to act in the best interests of the constituents - namely, reelection. This is generally good, because it can prevent (or at least limit) self-serving tyranny at the expense of the populous. However, politicians ideological goals then can be disrupted by looming election years, because if they can't show hard results and successes, they may be out of a job.

This is really the primary (if not only) reason why outstanding and widespread education programs don't get more political support. By the time today's grade school students are helping improve the global economy, maintain regional peace and stability, and progress technological innovations that save lives and time, individual politicians won't be able to use these results to be reelected. Countless statistics demonstrate that education is a worthwhile investment in the long run. To name a few:

• One extra year of education increases a person’s wages approximately 10 percent.
• The largest positive effect on child malnutrition has been the education of women – even more so than direct food aid.
• Every additional year of schooling reduces an adolescent boy’s risk of becoming involved in conflict by 20 percent.
• A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past age 5.

But all of these results take decades to mature. The trick as advocates is enabling policymakers at all levels to see that, through their support of education, they can help the communities that elected for them to a greater degree than if they just focused on the next few years.

I often pose a question to myself: if all of this worked, and our investment in education paid off, where would that leave me? Certainly without a cause. A month or so ago, while I was on a volunteer trip with Outreach 360 in Jinotega, Nicaragua, I expressed my realization that, as advocates who work through service, we are really trying to "work ourselves out of a job" - we wish we didn't have to do what we do, that the world didn't need us. Here, we have to differ from the politicians: we have to accept that, while we may love what we do, the need for us to do it is ultimately bad. We don't want to be reelected by the help and representation for which the marginalized populations of the world ask. We want to be able to invest long-term.

The Youth Perspective

People and organizations do not traditionally ask the youth population for their opinions on the issues - what do we know about economics or war or health care? No one can deny, though, that we can provide an informative and inspiring perspective on an issue that affects us individually: education.

Generally, policy makers are the ones that make policy. Advocacy in general is about turning that around, so that the people get to have a voice in the decisions that most affect them. In a democracy, the most simple form of advocacy is voting. Unfortunately for the cause of education, many of those most prone to be directly influenced by policy decisions are not yet of age. The most important factors in getting the youth to participate in this conversation are (1) motivating kids to break past the adult-oriented system and (2) teaching them how to best articulate their policy needs.

One advantage of using youth to advocate for youth is that it carries a shock value. Few people expect a teenager to be knowledgeable or mature enough to be involved in advocacy. In this regard, our words carry more weight. However, our words and not our age should be our most powerful tool. The most effective message will be constructed to combine the thoroughness of serious policy advocacy with the unique viewpoint of a student.

One barrier, besides age, for youth that wish to advocate on a global issue is location is that many of us simply do not have the means to mobilize physically, because, well, we have to go to school. I have most recently learned how strong digital advocacy can be, and no one is better equipped to utilize social media to solve social issues than the youngest generation. Reaching out to organizations or individuals that you know have been successful in their education advocacy can not only link you to existing movements, but can also trigger your own. To participate in an online discussion on development goals, and see the ideas of other youth around the world, see the Global Partnership for Youth in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Some tips on planning and carrying out advocacy as a young adult:

1. Know your facts. Advocates will always be more knowledgeable than policy makers on the policies we want to create. Use this to your advantage, and immerse yourself in the issue.
2. Don't forget why the issue matters to you. Going to school has likely been the biggest part of your life so far. The desire to give that to other children, so that they can have the same personal success that you are able to have is enough to motivate change.
3. Have a specific goal in mind. What is it that you're trying to achieve, exactly? What can you say that will most support and further your goal?
4. Don't go at it alone. Luckily, there are countless individuals that want the same thing that you want, in some form or another. Analyzing their experiences - what went well, what went wrong - and listening to their advice can be priceless.

For a more in-depth study on how to advocate well, see the recently released Youth Advocacy Toolkit.

Curriculum of Global Citizenship

In addressing the quality of education in the post-2015 agenda, the concept of teaching global citizenship is especially puzzling - to policy maker, statisticians, and advocates alike. How do we design a curriculum that encompasses peace and tolerance, and how do we reliably measure the effectiveness of such a curriculum?

In the UN Secretary-General's Education First Initiative, global citizenship is listed as one of three priorities, intended to encompass "to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies." For many, the benefit of this is to increase widespread participation in our global economy. For some, the most important feature of global citizenship is a renewed attitude of protection toward our common environment. For me, the recognition of our shared humanity would be enough - children thousands of miles apart mutually recognizing one another's existence and importance is reason enough to mandate a segment of universal curriculum.

Critical thinking and preparation for sustainable development as elements of global citizenship are emphasized in the brief Making Education a Priority in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, even though the Learning Metrics Task Force acknowledges the inevitable challenges in measuring and creating effective strategies for teaching global citizenship. The juxtaposition between these two values is intriguing: one within yourself, one between you and your community. If this connection is indeed as significant as it seems, it may serve to highlight the importance of the global citizenship goal overall.

Furthermore, the goal of global citizenship is not one that applies exclusively or even primarily to developing countries. Soft-skills like citizenship are displaced when easily measurable priorities ("can they or can they not answer this multiple choice question correctly?") are advertised, and this has been an issue that the U.S. has faced in recent years. Public schooling was arguably created for the purpose of fostering citizenship; successful coexistence between groups and individuals is conducive to maintenance of civil society. Given the boundlessness of our current capacity to communicate across physical barriers, all society is now a global society. Let's not forget that a world of efficient workers that nonetheless don't know how to get along with one another can never be an effective world. 

Introductions

I'll begin with some background information on me:

I'm a current undergraduate student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, studying Philosophy and Math with the hopes of becoming a lawyer and doing policy advocacy. Sometime recently, I've chosen a "cause": global education. This might require some explanation.

The "global" aspect is easy to explain: my heritage and my childhood existed in all corners of the world. At the age of ten, I traveled to India for the first time, and got a glimpse of social problems that plague the developing world in ways that America does not see. If I am to act to help the most in need, my issue will be an international one.

Ever since I wanted to be a lawyer, which was around age 11, I've known I wanted to represent children. This likely had to do initially with the fact that I was reading The Client by John Grisham, but it was accentuated by the lack of official representation I was awarded in my parent's divorce proceedings. However, I soon learned that I had a comparably good situation: kids all across New Mexico (my home state) were abused by their parents, abused by the schools, and neglected by the legal system.

As I got to internship-age, I was able to delve into a few facets of children's law. I had several wonderful mentors that were able to teach me about the issues facing local children as immigrants, students, foster care children, juvenile delinquents, children with disabilities, and children trying to get away from an unhealthy home. I learned how to do policy research, how to address law makers, how to define a "best practice," how to make an argument. 

Somewhere in between trying to decide on a college, trying to achieve something with my volunteer advocacy, and trying to initiate myself into adulthood, I began studying philosophy. Not only did this end up determining my major, and much of my intellectual enjoyment since, but it also enabled me to narrow my cause to advocating for the education of kids. No famous philosopher will dispute that education alone can change someone's way of thinking - hopefully for the better - and, for many, the ultimate goal of education is to perpetuate the existence of a more synchronized society. Just this morning, I read in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, "We need to have had the appropriate upbringing... to make up find enjoyment or pain in the right things; for this is the correct education" (1104b11-13). Aristotle argues briefly that it is this education that teaches us human virtue, the key to happiness individually and socially. If education can bring about this greater good, then education will be my cause.

So now we have an issue that is international, related to children, and in support of education. I best justify this by another quote, this time from Simone de Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity: "The constructive activities of man take on a valid meaning only when they are assumed as a movement toward freedom" (80). Beauvoir planted the seed for my own conception of freedom - I am only as free as the least-free person. And so I move to make that person free. Moreover, the freedoms that are tied to money, to food, to healthcare can all be reduced to increasing the quality and accessibility of education. Once again, my cause is justified.

My work is now just beginning: This past week I returned from a youth advocacy training in D.C. hosted by the Global Campaign for Education's U.S. chapter, with a fervor to spread awareness and share my thoughts. Last week, I was appointed one of A World at School's Global Youth Ambassadors, with instructions to get the word out. And so now I have a blog.